Traveling on a city bus is satisfying not only because it is according to the principle of using public transport and conserving oil for the future, but also because one gets new experiences every now and then.
Today I was on my way home from the hospital. I was sitting near the window of the last seat. There were two women on the seat in front of me. After some time, I noticed them because they did something peculiar. The one sitting near the window was stout and elderly. She put out her hand out of the window and threw out a candy wrapper. The one by her side was a thin young girl (perhaps of college going age). She passed her hand behind her neighbor's back, in front of me, out of the window and threw out her own candy wrapper. Before I could get upset with this total lack of civic sense, the wrapper found its way back through the window (owing to the breeze) and landed on my knee. I looked at it. Its candy side was up, away from my trousers. I considered that a good sign. God had spared me getting candy remains on my trousers, especially when it was eaten by someone else. Before I realized what I was doing, I picked up the wrapper by its corner and gave it back to the girl. She looked at it for a second, identified it as the one she had just thrown out of the window, realized what had happened, and took it back sheepishly. I was curious to see what she would do. Perhaps she would get the message and put it in her purse, and throw it away in a dustbin later on. No such luck. She put out her hand out of the window, this time in front of her neighbor, and threw it out again, sure that it would not come back in. It did not.
My subtle attempt at educating her on civic ways, commanded by my right brain without telling the left brain of what it planned, had gone totally waste. The only thing I gained from that was something to post on my blog, and perhaps stop any of my readers from disposing off waste from the window of a city bus or train, if they feel so inclined.
Today I was on my way home from the hospital. I was sitting near the window of the last seat. There were two women on the seat in front of me. After some time, I noticed them because they did something peculiar. The one sitting near the window was stout and elderly. She put out her hand out of the window and threw out a candy wrapper. The one by her side was a thin young girl (perhaps of college going age). She passed her hand behind her neighbor's back, in front of me, out of the window and threw out her own candy wrapper. Before I could get upset with this total lack of civic sense, the wrapper found its way back through the window (owing to the breeze) and landed on my knee. I looked at it. Its candy side was up, away from my trousers. I considered that a good sign. God had spared me getting candy remains on my trousers, especially when it was eaten by someone else. Before I realized what I was doing, I picked up the wrapper by its corner and gave it back to the girl. She looked at it for a second, identified it as the one she had just thrown out of the window, realized what had happened, and took it back sheepishly. I was curious to see what she would do. Perhaps she would get the message and put it in her purse, and throw it away in a dustbin later on. No such luck. She put out her hand out of the window, this time in front of her neighbor, and threw it out again, sure that it would not come back in. It did not.
My subtle attempt at educating her on civic ways, commanded by my right brain without telling the left brain of what it planned, had gone totally waste. The only thing I gained from that was something to post on my blog, and perhaps stop any of my readers from disposing off waste from the window of a city bus or train, if they feel so inclined.
